Webbots, Spiders, and Screen Scrapers In this age of HTML5 and the semantic web it is surprising that we have to even consider such low level ways of interacting with web pages as bots, spiders and scrapers - but we do! This book promises to explain how it all works.

News

The Kinect is a device that has a huge potential - if you only understand how to harness it. This is where "Making Things See" can help and O'Reilly has provided 10 e-book copies for winners of a prize draw.

While it seems that big data can solve more or less any problem, there are some things it just isn't up to. Using social network data to judge public opinion and specifically to predict the outcome of elections seems as it if is a rock solid data mining application, but is it?

If you are looking for an exciting hardware project, KegDroid deserves a look. It is a sophisticated system that involves Android, Arduino, NFC, plumbing and - beer. You have heard of desktop and laptop apps now we have bartop apps to add to the list.

CISPA, the Cyber Intelligence Security and Protection Act, is being debated today in the U.S. House of Representatives, ahead of a vote tomorrow. What does it mean for internet users? What can we do about it?Update : House approves CISPA

Would you hand over some of your computational resources in return for free game play? If you know anything about Bitcoin this seems like a crazy idea - or is this a new revenue stream for games and apps?

The Core

The String is the most basic and most useful of the JavaScript data structures. It can also be used as a starting point for, or be incorporated into, many other data structures. Let's see how it all works.

eBooks

A point cloud is a set of points in a 3D space. You can view the cloud from different angles and lighting conditions. You can even apply colors and textures to its surfaces. A point cloud is one step away from a full 3D model and sometimes it is more useful.

History

When you think of early pioneering computers you tend to imagine huge monsters with thousands of valves and a team of technicians to match. Small computers started earlier than you might think, as the remarkable story of ARC, an early British computer proves. It was the brainchild of Andrew Booth, also known for Booth's Algorithm

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